Home » VintageKustom.com » Comment Board » Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom (he turned his Vibrolux backwards)
Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20905] Wed, 09 July 2014 12:49 Go to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
Messages: 166
Registered: March 2014
Location: Dallas
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Anybody familiar with Roy Buchannon or Danny Gatton's tele sounds? To get their treble tone they ran 1meg tone pots in their teles and cranked their amps up very loud for the clubs and venues they played. For playing in my tv/studio room, I never could get that tone from several Fenders, Line 6, Crate, or Peaveys because I can't crank the amp up loud enough without disturbing rhe rest of the house. And to my ear, eq pedals ruined amp's true nature of it 's identity sound. However with these Kustom K100C-8 4x10's volume turned to only 3(on a 1 to 10 scale) I can duplicate the sound and tone of Roy Buchannon's Vibrolux and Danny Gatton's Super Reverbs and Twins that they cranked up to get that tone.

http://youtu.be/7N9qTFiVWaw

Here's a video of Roy Buchannon. If you can watch closely you'll see Roy Buchannon's amp turned backward away from the audience. At 3:05 is a good shot of the amp. I think it's a Vibrolux or maybe a Super Reverb. I've read he used mostly Vibroluxes..........He maxxed his amp's volume out at 10 full volume which was too loud for the audience on the front row. Then he'd use his Telecaster's volume knob to turn down or up.....He would turn down and sometimes then would play steel swell licks using the volume knob to sustain the notes.

I also run a Danelectro delay into my Kustoms to get that particular sound at low volume...... Just sharing some tone observations.

[Updated on: Wed, 09 July 2014 12:51]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20906 is a reply to message #20905] Wed, 09 July 2014 15:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pleat is currently offline  pleat
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Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi
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I checked out the video and it looks like a Super with a single 15" JBL. Nice shiny something center grill cloth and the video of the back of the amp appears to have the JBL Magnet area showing.

The super and the vibrolux were the same amp chassis.
pleat

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20909 is a reply to message #20906] Wed, 09 July 2014 16:32 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Registered: March 2014
Location: Dallas
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Hey Pleat..... 10:34 into the video there 's a good shot of Roy Buchannon's amp. I think I see 2 speakers....... Maybe the bottom 2 in a 4 speaker Super? Or maybe it's a Twin?

Anybody familiar with Danny Gatton? I've read he ran 1 meg tone pots in his Telecaster and used Vibrolux's and Super Reverbs..... Is this a Super in this video? I run 1 meg tone pots in my Tele and can get a similar tone out of my K100C-8 4x10, but not any compression sound. To me it sounds like Danny may have running a little compression....?

http://youtu.be/NWi7-qa8sU4

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20930 is a reply to message #20909] Sat, 12 July 2014 20:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kustom_Bart is currently offline  Kustom_Bart
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Registered: October 2010
Location: Greenville, MichiGUN
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What are you using for a volume pot value? Do you actively use the tone pots or just leave them dimed out? Do you lose volume when you turn them down? What are you using for pickups? This I can help you with Smile You can e-mail me directly btketner@charter.net if you want

[Updated on: Sat, 12 July 2014 20:27]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20933 is a reply to message #20930] Sat, 12 July 2014 21:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
Messages: 166
Registered: March 2014
Location: Dallas
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I have several Fender American Teles, running 500k volume CTS pot, 1 meg CTS tone pot, no tone cap, run both pots full volume all the time.....Also have several Chinese tele copies...,I use the tele copies when playing out in public(dissapoints the thieves here in Dallas)..use the American teles here in my studio/tv room, I run American 52's pickups/may be called vintage now in everything, steel bridge, brass saddles, tusq nut, stock tuners(Kluson I think), Dean Markley .08's, .09's, or .10's.....I can get the Roy Buchannon, Danny Gatton, Roy Nichols sound at low volume(3 on scale of 1-10).....Over the last 45 years I've tried many combinations of everything including many amps, but this combination with these Kustom K100C-8 4x10's I find is best to my ear for playing at low volume...... playing out on gigs I use a Line 6 Spider II which gives that higher treble.... and since it's a cheap easily replaced amp, it dissapoints the thieves here in Dallas. I have owned numerous other amps; Fender Twin, Deluxe Reverb, Custom Vibrolux Reverb, Fender Cyber Twin, Fender Super Reverb, and a couple Peaveys.... I never got into modding amps because I've had techs screws the amps up when they tried; so I've learned to leave the amps stock....never quite got the bite, spank, crackle out of them like I do with these 1969 Kustom K100C-8 4x10's for low volume home studio playing. Without a doubt the Fender Cyber Twin is the worst amp on the planet, lifeless tone......I don't like eq pedals as to me they seem to lose the guitar & amps identity sound.....but then I like also like analog, not digital........ If I were in a higher income bracket I'd get 60's Vibrolux and 50's original Fender tele..... But then to get that tone I'd still have to crank up.

[Updated on: Sat, 12 July 2014 22:03]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20934 is a reply to message #20933] Sun, 13 July 2014 01:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kustom_Bart is currently offline  Kustom_Bart
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That is the beauty of the Kustoms is they are CLEAN and will take any kind of effect that you throw at them or any kind of guitar and make them truly sound how they are supposed to sound. I can give you a suggestion or two on what you may try if you want to add to the tone circuit if you want to and it will allow you to use the tone pots and not lose any volume when you turn the tone pots down. Also, I would suggest going to a 1000k volume pot. The 1000k volume pot is what they did in the early 80's in all of the Charvel and Jackson guitars that had no tone pots, basically you have no tone pots by not having a tone cap in the circuit anyway. This will make it more trebly. I wouldn't be afraid to add a tone cap and bleed to make it not lose volume as you use the tone pot. You never know when you may want to use it.

I am not a big fan of the digital either and love analog too. All of my recording gear is still as analog as I can stay without using a computer...lol! I have played the tube amp mod game and moded them myself and it just gets old after a while. I love tube tine, but when I can make a Marshall stack cry (they are so directional) with a 25 watt Kustom single 12 K50 and it fills the entire room...it is just funny and I can carry my entire set up in one trip from the truck...lol!

[Updated on: Sun, 13 July 2014 01:53]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20935 is a reply to message #20934] Sun, 13 July 2014 02:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Registered: March 2014
Location: Dallas
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Thanks for the info......I tried a 1meg volume pot with a 1meg tone pot back when I was running Fender tube amps and my sound seemed too thin losing the identity signature footprint sound of the tele sound......I like the identifiable tele sound..... I've had a Charvel, a Fender Jazzmaster, a Fender Jaguar, an Ibanez(don't remember the model), but then the tone had too much bright treble and to my ear lacked mids the tele has.....I only like the clean tele spank and quack sound........ also Kustoms are good to get good sustain with the vibrato..... and good for the reverb surf sound.....we primarily play clean blues, some SRV, 60's rock, CCR, Haggard. a little ZZ Top, except we play it clean for the over 50 crowd..... When we play out at a an overnight travel to a private gig I only use a Line 6 Spider II 2x12 and and Chinese tele copies I drop Fender vintage 52's in because when it's stolen it 's not a big $ replacement. Thieves are everywhere in Dallas/Ft. Worth....I'm not a digital fan and I've thought about getting a big 200 Kustom rig, but I've had stuff stolen 3 times from our trailer at motels after a gig.....So I leave my Kustom stuff in my studio.....

I play the teles with the pickup switch in the center position using both pickups. I lower the neck pickup and raise the bridge pickup some to get the right blend of tone I'm after. I also have a couple teles with blender pots instead of a pickup switch.

[Updated on: Sun, 13 July 2014 03:08]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20936 is a reply to message #20905] Sun, 13 July 2014 07:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
stevem is currently offline  stevem
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We had gear stolen from our trailer and after that we would park it with its doors backed up to a wall, a sign post, a telephone pole and if need be unhook the car and or truck and back that up to. The trailers doors!

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20937 is a reply to message #20936] Sun, 13 July 2014 08:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Registered: March 2014
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We did all that too. Even removed one wheel so they couldn't drag the trailer off. We have an alarm on the trailer also. One afternoon we came out of a restaurant and the thieves had cut a hole in the trailer's side, in broad daylight.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20938 is a reply to message #20937] Sun, 13 July 2014 13:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pleat is currently offline  pleat
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Location: Belding, Mi
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Dallas sounds like an area that is not a great place to have a trailer full of amps and guitars.
2009 at our Chanute convention, we had a collector from the Dallas area bring a trailer full of kustoms. He had 4 locks on the back door that you had to have a key to open the latch cover to get to the real key tumbler. He had two wheel locking bars for each wheel, and a 3/4 steel cable to connect to the hitch frame plus a double locking trailer hitch. If we went from the motel to downtown for breakfast, he'd get the trailer ready to travel two miles and park and re attach the wheel locks. I thought it was a bit overkill in a town of maybe 12000 people. I asked him, with all that security for theft, I asked what he had in case someone used a sawsall and just cut out or unscrewed one of the side panels and bypassed all the locks. He didn't have an answer other than his 357 he had with him.
I guess if someone wants something bad enough, they will get it. Locks only keep honest people out.
pleat

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20939 is a reply to message #20938] Sun, 13 July 2014 13:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Thieves are everywhere in Dallas/Ft. Worth.......speaking of the Kustom convention, at the guitar shop where I'm getting a Kustom fixed, one of the guys behind the counter described a bunch of Kustoms he has and said the red head in the Arlington Kustom convention pictures with Bud Ross is his wife.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20942 is a reply to message #20939] Sun, 13 July 2014 20:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pleat is currently offline  pleat
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http://www.kustomcollector.com/index.html is the site that has a lot of photo's from our past conventions. It has some photo's of the redhead you mentioned. We've did Nashville in 2000, Indy in 2001, Arlington in 2004 Chanute in 2009 and 2010, a small one in Indy in 2011 and 2012 back in Chanute. This year, we're heading to Terry Stout in Forest, Va. August 8-9-10 Home of the largest kustom collection I'd guess in the world. So far we have collectors from OK. Chicago, Indy, GA. SC. MI. MN. and I'm sure I've left some collectors out.
On the site listed click on Fellow Kustom Collectors tab and scroll down the Terry's collection. Some really nice amps and the photo's don't show all he gotten since those photo's were taken.

I also went back and watched the video and I think it is a Twin Reverb that Roy is playing, the back does show a two speaker configuration.
pleat

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20944 is a reply to message #20942] Sun, 13 July 2014 21:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Very impressive collections and pictures pleat. Hope you Kustom convention goers will post tons of pictures. Also, if anyone plays live at the convention, it would be nice to hear some audio of those bigger Kustom amps if possible. Maybe post some Youtube video? There 's only a very few Kustom audio examples on Youtube. Of course Fogerty's video with CCR and in his later years is on Youtube......

On a peripheral subject, does anyone know of what songs from the 60's & 70's had Kustoms on the recordings? That would make a good list to hear. I never saw or heard a Kustom up close in person until I bought one on Fleabay a few months ago......The good thing about Ebay is we can buy and experiment with vintage gear and if we don't like it, resell it on Ebay..,,,.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20945 is a reply to message #20944] Sun, 13 July 2014 22:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pleat is currently offline  pleat
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Listen to just about any Motown song in the 60's and you'll hear James Jamerson bass playing through a blue K200B-1 with a 2x15 cabinet. A great video is Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Shows the kustom amp in the studio.
Tommy James is another band in the 60's that used Kustoms as well.
We always have jam sessions at our conventions and use all old school kustoms, right down the HiZ pa heads and the Kustom powered monitor cabinets.
Kustom Bart has some photo's of Eric Clapton sitting on a K200 rig, and I have a photo of ZZ Top sitting on top of a K400 PA head. They sure were young in that photo. I think someone sent to us as the band who played their prom. Can't imagine having ZZ Top playing a prom. Too funny.

pleat

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20946 is a reply to message #20945] Mon, 14 July 2014 03:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kustom_Bart is currently offline  Kustom_Bart
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I do have three 8 x 10 pics of Cream playing at a music store in Wisconsin and Clapton is sitting on top of a K200 and 2 x 15 cab. I got them from Bud's first wife Carolyn. I think I have a digital copy of the ZZ top pic that Pleat is talking about of ZZ Top somewhere too.

Also Clapton is playing his SG "the fool" guitar if I recall.

If they are ripping off that much stuff down there you need to carry a bigger gun, people get shot for less up here LOL!

[Updated on: Mon, 14 July 2014 03:32]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20949 is a reply to message #20946] Mon, 14 July 2014 11:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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Location: Dallas
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Very cool about the pictures.... I've seen the ZZ Top pic when they looked like kids.

Yes, thieves do steal anything in sight down here in Texas. The cops tell me some thieves they observed on a security camera stealing stuff in parking lots drive up in a stolen van, hop out with sunglasses, ball cap pulled down over their front face so they can't be id'd.....then they use saws to rip a side out of trailers, grab the PA, amps, and guitars and are gone in 2 minutes. Later the stolen van is found abandoned. The guy who mows my yard said he was at Home Depot. When he came out, thieves had cut the metal cage on his trailer that he locks his yard tools up in and everything was gone, 3 mowers, blowers, weed eaters, everything. Home Depot 's security cameras showed the thieves tag # on their van, but it was stolen and later abandoned. Thieves use saws to cut thru the side of houses too so the alarm won't go off. And when they find dogs at the resident, they 've been known to shoot them. The thieves venture into medium income and upper income supposedly safer neighborhoods and it's believed they case the houses out first. Possibly even follow band members home from gigs to see where the instruments and amps are stored. And then they learn when nobody is home.,Everybody in Texas has guns, but so do the thieves.........Last time I got ripped off was at a restaurant at 5pm in broad daylight a few years ago on the way to do a dance. Came out of the restaurant and the side of the trailer was cut open like a sardine can.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20951 is a reply to message #20905] Mon, 14 July 2014 12:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
chicagobill
Messages: 2005
Registered: April 2003
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Tommy James played for a friend's prom back in the day. Rotary Connection opened for them. Both bands used full Kustom backlines. It must have looked like a trade show booth or one of the collector get-togethers!

Here in Chicago, every touring band is warned about the thieves that do nothing but follow equipment vans around, waiting for the 10 minutes to rip off all of the equipment. I guess Zack Wylde had a guitar stolen here from his tour bus recently.

Your stuff just isn't safe anywhere anymore.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20952 is a reply to message #20905] Tue, 15 July 2014 00:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
BrianBB is currently offline  BrianBB
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I knew Danny quite well and he used a Fender tweed Twin from the late 50's most of the time. He always experimented with hotter pickups, even routing his 1953 Tele for a Charlie Christian pickup, but i don't recall him ever changing pots.

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20953 is a reply to message #20952] Tue, 15 July 2014 06:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vintagefan is currently offline  vintagefan
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thanks for the info Brianbb....I see different websites and different forums sometimes mentioning different mods and different equipment for Danny.... here's one webpage of his equipment.....most impressive....
http://www.dannygatton.com/guitars.html

I wasn't lucky enough to see any of his shows, but his playing on some Youtube videos is awesome
http://youtu.be/NWi7-qa8sU4

[Updated on: Tue, 15 July 2014 06:53]

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Re: Roy Buchannon sound with a Kustom [message #20955 is a reply to message #20905] Tue, 15 July 2014 12:20 Go to previous message
BrianBB is currently offline  BrianBB
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Here's a side of Danny most people never see. He was just incredible at any style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KmikNdhEWA

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